Gay Marriage

Rahimi 1 Tara Rahimi English II Mrs. Granno 9 January 2013 Same-Sex Marriage It is unbelievable that the United States of America, the land of the free, still has laws that ban the marriage of homosexual couples. Many states within the United States have been debating over this issue for years. Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage in May of 2004. As of November 7, 2012, eight more states made gay marriage legal in the United States. “I saw with so many of the gay couples, they were so devoted to another. I saw so much love. When this hearing was over, I was a changed person in regard to this issue. I felt that I understood what same-sex couples were looking for” (Kach). Homosexuality occurs in over 450 species. Homophobia only exists in one. Which seems unnatural now? When it comes down to it, we are all people with emotions and feelings regardless of our sexual orientation. We should give homosexuals the right to have marriage without putting labels on it, like a “civil union” or “gay marriage”. Legalizing homosexual marriage will stop discrimination, won’t have a negative impact on heterosexual marriages, and will not cause others to ask for outrageous requests to be legal. A marriage is between a spouse and a spouse not a gender and a gender. To deny homosexuals the right to get married is like the United States going back to the times of segregation. As our founding fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Declaration of Independence). If a man’s happiness is to be with another man that

Rahimi 2 he loves, who are we to say it is wrong? Many think that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry because they cannot produce children. However, if having children were to be the case of getting married, why are infertile couples allowed to get married and stay together or why do some couples just not have children at all? Getting married means much more than just having children. It takes devotion and true love for a couple to get married. Not giving homosexuals the right to get married is a form of discrimination and gives people the mindset that it is perfectly fine to bully people that are different from them. "Every day I went into school I knew that something new was going to happen. Goodness knows how many times I put a knife to my wrist" (Daniel Shepphard). Is it fine for a 13 year old boy to cut himself for being the way he is? No one should feel so out of place and be so bullied that they would want to harm themselves or try to end their life. Almost two-thirds of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) students are scared to go to school because they are bullied. School is a place to learn and be the best that you can be, not a place to battle and stand up for a right that “straight” people are just given. If we make laws that make homosexual marriage legal, more people will realize that it is not okay to bully someone because of their sexual preference. If the laws of our country stand up for something, so will the people of the country. There is the argument that homosexual marriage does not follow the idea of “traditional marriages.” In reality, there really are not “traditional” marriages anymore. In ancient time, traditional marriage consisted of polygamy, communal child-rearing, use of concubines and mistresses, and commonality of prostitution. How can we say that an attraction between two people of the same gender is considered a sin, when all of the things listed about are considered as part of “traditional” marriage. Marriage in the United States is a dynamic institution and has gone through many changes. Women now have rights in a marriage and there are interracial

Rahimi 3 marriages. Why is it that Kim Kardashian’s marriage that lasted for about 72 days is legal, but Neil Patrick Harris, who has been with his partner for more than 11 years, is still fighting for his right to get married to someone who he has been truly devoted to? It is unfair that “straight” people take marriage as an advantage, and are getting divorced left and right, while homosexuals would do anything to have the same rights as heterosexual couples. Some people believe that gay marriage is a “slippery slope”. They say that if people want homosexuals to have marriage rights, then soon people will be asking for polygamous, incestuous, bestial, and other nontraditional rights. “If we legalize gay marriage, why not polygamy?” (Savage). First of all, marriage requires consent, and animals, children, and people in comas, can’t give consent. As for polygamy, in many parts of the world today, it is completely okay to have more than one spouse. Also, there is a lot of cheating in relationships and marriages in the United States. Marriage and homosexual marriage is the same thing, except for the gender of the spouses. With gay marriage not legal, there are already so many cases of rape. Are we to ban and blame heterosexual marriage for that? No. Homosexual marriage has no negative impact on society. If someone does not want a gay marriage, they are not forced to get one. Making it legal will teach society to not discriminate others that are different than us, which is a very positive impact on our world. The ban of homosexual marriage should be lifted off of the 41 states that have not yet made it legal. It is time for our nation to accept each other despite our differences. Homosexuals do not protest against heterosexual marriages, and they understand why some are against them, but if others do not agree with gay marriage, they are not forced to get one. Gay marriage is now very widely accepted in the United States. 41% of people strongly favor gay marriage. In the past two decades, public support for gay marriage has increased 1% annually. “Everyone has people

Rahimi 4 in their lives that are gay, lesbian or transgender or bisexual. They may not want to admit it, but I guarantee they know somebody” (King). Gay marriage should be legalized and labels like gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, etc., should be taken off because in the end, we are all just people.